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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Earlier this week I showed how I created my Princess Merida Costume inspired by Disney's Brave (get the how-to HERE). Today I'm sharing how I made the extra accents that are central to Merida's signature style: her fiery red hair and her quiver belt. The total cost for her entire costume was under $25, so it's a brave AND thrifty princess look!

Ready to see how to make a cheap and easy yarn wig to make some wild and free Merida hair?

Start by wrapping yarn around a pillow 10 times (mine was 16" x 16"). Cut yarn from skien and cut a small tie piece.

Pull yarn bundle off pillow and tie at one end, cut open at the other and repeat about 10 times to make enough bundles.

Start attaching yarn bundle to crochet hat along the center of the hat. Pull the tie ends at the center of the bundle through either side of a stitch in the hat:
Knot the tie on the underside of hat:
Repeat with bundles about 1 inch apart in a mohawk style from front to back and then add a few bundles on the sides. Try wig on and fill in any bare sections with additional bundles. Trim sections near face in a few framing layers.

I wanted to add a bit of curl and tried a few different methods I saw online that were supposed to work on acrylic yarn and the results were:

Setting sections in foam rollers for a week did....nothing. Getting yarn wet on wooden dowels and drying in oven (like corker bows) did....nothing. Spray starch on the dowels...did even less - FAIL #3. Maybe using a better yarn would work, but my goal was make a wig that was cheap, so I gave up on trying to curl it. It still captures Merida's overall "wild" haired look, so I'm happy with it as it is.

Of course any authentic Merida needs her most important accessories: bow, arrow and quiver belt:

We found a great bow & arrow set for $6 at Wal-Mart and of course my little lady wanted to be able to carry hers like "Mer" as she calls her), so I created a quick and simple quiver belt. Here's how to make 'em -

You'll Need:

- 1/4 to 1/2yd of brown fleece, felt, pleather or corduroy (I used some leftover scraps)

- Length of braided pleather one 2 inches wider than waist (find in trim section of fabric store for about $2)

- Single snap

Cut a rectangular piece for the quiver body that's about an inch shorter than the arrows to go in it. Mine was 10 inches wide by 12 inches long.

Hem top edge of rectangle and then fold in half width-wise and stitch down the side:

Cut a circle for the bottom that has a circumference the same as the rectangle's width.Stitch circle to bottom of quiver and clip around edges. Turn right side out.Cut a small rectangle (6.5 inches wide by 6 inches long) for the belt loop of the quiver, fold width-wise and stitch down the side, refold with the seam in the center, then stitch one end closed. Turn right side out and then fold raw edges of open end inward and stitch closed.

Fold strip in half and stitch to the back side of the top the quiver:

To make the belt I used a length of braided pleather, folded & stitched the raw edges under and attached a snap on either end. I ran the loop through the belt and the quiver was all set for use:

Now a little Scottish-style lass is ready to "change her fate" and be Brave inside AND out!

36 comments:

Acrylic yarn doesn't curl. You need wool. Wind it around dowels, boil for ten minutes and then dry it in the oven and you get corkscrew curls. Only thing is that any massive amount of wool yarn can get pricey!

I figured, but was surprised by how many tutorials out there said you could (which proves not all projects out there actually work). Since we were being thrifty there's no way I'd spend a lot just for a few curls. Tussled and inexpensive was more our speed!

Great minds must think alike. I attempted to make a yarn wig with a head band. Needless to say, it doesn't quite workout. My boo boo still wears is with the homemade Merida dress I made for her anyway. Oh well, guess I'll HAVE to go back to the craft store! Darn!

I can't thank you enough for the wig tutorial!! I was just about to make a powdered wig for my daughter who's playing George Washington in a school play and was just at a LOSS as to how! I hadn't thought to use a crochet hat!! It's PERFECT and will save me countless hours, and glue gun burns ;) THANK YOU!!

The costume and the wig are fantastic! You did an amazing job and she looks sooo cute. Thank you for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

I just stumbled on your website because i'm looking for insulated mitten ideas to make for my son. I love your tutorials! Back to your wig, once upon a time, i can't remember for what purpose, I untwisted the yarn, and the separated yarn was left curly. I'm just wondering if that might work for your wig! It will definitely add volume to it too :)

Thanks so much & I'm so thrilled you've been checking out my other tutorials! That sounds like it would probably work. There are hundreds of pieces of yarn on this, so I'm not sure I'd want to try to untwist them all, but it's a good idea for doing some sections or on something with a bit less volume. Thanks!

For making curls for acrylic yarn wigs-Hot iron what you want curled and use any strong hair shaping cream, saturate yarn and hot iron again. Wrap yarn around any size round you want, I used a empty pill bottle for small curl and a metal tube wood would work to for long curls. With yarn wrapped around tube of choice roll your hot iron on yarn while wrapped around tube. Let it sit for about 5 min. And unroll. I swear it works. Ive tried everything under the sun. Found this is the best. Easy to wash out. I sell homemade yarn wigs on ebay and have a lot of hacks. Ask me any yarn wig question and ill answer it.